In some parts of the world, girls can still be some of the most under valued members of society. The last to be educated, the last to have economic independence, they may be easy prey for people seeking to exploit them. A young girl fleeing extreme poverty in her rural village finds herself alone and hungry at a crowded city. The promise of a meal and comfortable bed seems like a dream that is too good to refuse. But the dream becomes a nightmare when the bed and the meal must be earned by selling her body. Physical and mental abuse, drug use, and hopelessness are common. Even those girls who are rescued from prostitution are not truly free. The years of abuse leave them needing counselling and much care, and often their families reject them. They are alone with no financial security, no job skills and no one to care for them. These girls are lost and forgotten in the "bidonville" of Casablanca, Morocco . Touriya is one of them.
Photo documentary story / Photojournal by Belgian photojournalist Ben Milpas (Hits: 49009)

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